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Another long one...
Feb. 6th, 2006 10:38 pmI deliberately refrained from doing any serious translation work over the weekend, to give me an opportunity to recharge my batteries and get some other stuff done. Dinner last night reverted to Ramone's, and was an interesting affair, where all parties involved let their hair down.
I started the day by tackling the most difficult of the handwritten work, which was difficult to read owing to the poor quality of reproduction.
I have yet to establish a clear approach to translating such material. Ideally, I would transcribe it and then work with the created file, except that my speed in typing Russian nowhere approaches my speed in English. Another alternative would be to dictate my translation, except that dictation - particularly the part where one starts and stops the recorder countless times - is a skill that I have not mastered. Indeed, often I'll type a translated sentence as I read the Russian original, which at times requires editing the result to tighten up the text and make it sound like good standard American English.
Translating directly from a handwritten source makes checking the result more difficult, as often, I get stuck trying to make out the same words that gave me difficulty the first time.
So, in the end, there's no easy answer.
In a way, however, translating hard-to-read manuscript provides a puzzle-like challenge, where I must figure out what word a group of disconnected dark splotches correspond to in the context of a larger sentence. (The Google capability of embedding an asterisk in a query, as in "it was a dark and * night," to unearth the word "stormy" came in handy here.)
I was sidetracked early in my effort with the arrival of Huntür, who spent the morning with me. We watched some Russian animated films from the early 1950s and then part of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, and then I set her up with my old NEC-8201 (a clone of the Radio Shack Model 100) and tried to apply myself to my work while she "typed," with little success on my end.
I'm not exactly complaining.
I did manage to complete the handwritten part of the assignment, which leaves a typed portion that I've already run through my OCR program, so that file is on deck.
* * * I've been listening to some interesting podcasts, lately. The French Pod Class is a little lightweight for my level (I am happy to say), but I still find it worth listening to, if for no other reason that the guy who puts the podcast together, Sebastien, builds his podcasts around themes, emphasises repetition, and provides a couple of musical interludes in the bargain.
I've also recently discovered ChinesePod.com, which has done a better job of opening spoken Chinese up to me than any of the audio aids I've put my hands on so far. What I particularly like about these podcasts is that although the lessons start with short dialogs of (for me, long) sentences, the rest of the podcast concentrates on breaking down those sentences into their constituent pieces. The sound track also emphasizes repetition, which I like.
* * * In other news, well... I'll hold my piece for now.
Cheers...
I started the day by tackling the most difficult of the handwritten work, which was difficult to read owing to the poor quality of reproduction.
I have yet to establish a clear approach to translating such material. Ideally, I would transcribe it and then work with the created file, except that my speed in typing Russian nowhere approaches my speed in English. Another alternative would be to dictate my translation, except that dictation - particularly the part where one starts and stops the recorder countless times - is a skill that I have not mastered. Indeed, often I'll type a translated sentence as I read the Russian original, which at times requires editing the result to tighten up the text and make it sound like good standard American English.
Translating directly from a handwritten source makes checking the result more difficult, as often, I get stuck trying to make out the same words that gave me difficulty the first time.
So, in the end, there's no easy answer.
In a way, however, translating hard-to-read manuscript provides a puzzle-like challenge, where I must figure out what word a group of disconnected dark splotches correspond to in the context of a larger sentence. (The Google capability of embedding an asterisk in a query, as in "it was a dark and * night," to unearth the word "stormy" came in handy here.)
I was sidetracked early in my effort with the arrival of Huntür, who spent the morning with me. We watched some Russian animated films from the early 1950s and then part of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, and then I set her up with my old NEC-8201 (a clone of the Radio Shack Model 100) and tried to apply myself to my work while she "typed," with little success on my end.
I'm not exactly complaining.
I did manage to complete the handwritten part of the assignment, which leaves a typed portion that I've already run through my OCR program, so that file is on deck.
I've also recently discovered ChinesePod.com, which has done a better job of opening spoken Chinese up to me than any of the audio aids I've put my hands on so far. What I particularly like about these podcasts is that although the lessons start with short dialogs of (for me, long) sentences, the rest of the podcast concentrates on breaking down those sentences into their constituent pieces. The sound track also emphasizes repetition, which I like.
Cheers...
